3 Simple Things to Do to Become a Better Writer
Anyone Can Benefit from These Tips, Even You!
Here at Ray Access, we are professional writers. We became writers the old-fashioned way: we worked at it by writing and rewriting. You can too. Here are three simple things you can do to improve your writing skills.
1. Read
That’s right: reading helps your writing. Ideally, we suggest that you read the types of things you want to write. If you want to write science fiction, load your shopping cart with Isaac Asimov and Arthur C. Clark. If you want to write for the newspaper, read — not scan, but really read — everything from the local rag to the New York Times. And of course, if you want to blog, read other blogs. Like this one!
Here’s how it works: when you read, your mind takes in the words on the page, the ideas behind those words, and the way the words are strung together. Before you can write like a genius, you have to know what a genius writes like.
It’s also important to read a variety of authors, so when you begin to write, you don’t subconsciously copy the tone and cadence of the one you like the best. A little of that likely will happen anyway, but your influences gradually fade as your own voice becomes stronger.
2. Write
Like any skill, writing requires practice to improve. If you wanted to become a better baseball pitcher, you’d have to practice throwing. To become a better carpenter, you spend years refining your skills and knowledge. Writing is no different.
Now you’ve probably heard that writing is an “art,” meaning it’s something only artists can do. At a certain level, that’s true, but very few people reach that level. For the rest of us, writing is a craft, like knitting or driving. The more you do it — when you have the intention of improving; when you do it consciously — the better you’ll get at it.
The best advice for becoming a better writer is to write. Practice every day. It doesn’t matter what you write about or how good that writing is. Just keep writing. Keep a journal. Your writing will improve the more you do it.
3. Solicit Constructive Criticism
When you feel you’re ready to share your writing, find a person or a group who promise to be brutally honest. Sharing your writing with your mother or your best friend might be nice for them, but it usually will not improve your writing. You need an objective, impartial reader.
Writers need feedback. Writers need to have their work read. It’s the primary reason Mark left the lucrative field of technical writing: no one reads technical manuals except other technical writers. Mark needed a broader audience. You will too when you suddenly find yourself writing.
So continue to read, write every day, and seek outside feedback. These are three things you can do, in order, to become a better writer. Writing a blog post will no longer feel like climbing Mount Everest. Composing a letter or email will no longer take all day. And maybe someday you can join the ranks of professional writers, just like Linda and Mark of Ray Access.
Ray Access is a content marketing firm that delivers targeted words to empower your business. Contact us about your specific project to receive a quote or discuss your needs. We write website copy, blog posts, e-newsletters and more. Everything we do is thoroughly researched, professionally edited and guaranteed original.